104 Inya Road, Kamayaut Township, Yangon, Myanmar.

This is the blog for the Holy Cross Theological College's Alumni and friends and anyone who is interested in HCTC. Here we can meet, express and reveal ourselves, and discuss. Most of all, we will have a chance to strengthen, comfort, and reinforce each other.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

The Anglican Church in Myanmar: the way we worship

Here's something that I want you show all of you. I want to show how Anglican churches in Myanmar worship and how'd we keep this wonderful tradition alive. It is the clip that I've extracted from "Holy Trinity", a gospel album made in 2011 for the 125th anniversary of Holy Trinity Cathedral. I hope you enjoy watching it.


As always, any comment and suggestion are most welcome!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Is the idea of "Messiah must suffer" from Luke, an oxymoron or an invention of Luke?


As a Christian, to speak of Jesus is to speak about a son of God, who suffered and die to pay the debt of the sins of the world (John 3:14-21, Gal. 1:14, Heb 13:12-16) and by His resurrection, he was enthroned and sated at the right hand of God and shared the Lordship with the Father (Philippians 2:8-11). Bellinger and Farmer wrote “central and essential to a distinctively Christian faith is the belief that a particular person, namely, Jesus, died on behalf of other”
It is Jesus Christ’s suffering and death accomplished God’s plan of salvation and played important role in Christian belief and theology. The term Messiah and suffering servant is coin-sided of salvation theology because, when Christians proclaim and confess about Jesus Christ and his redemptive work, they are confessing Christ’s suffering as well as Christ resurrection. The son of God paid the debt of sin by his suffering and death. And that suffering and death was legitimized and proven as an act of atonement by resurrection of Jesus Christ which is the coronation or enthronement of God’s anointed one, Messiah. Therefore, in my opinion, the suffering and the role of Jesus as messiah is the heart of the Christian theology of salvation and atonement, even the center of Christians’ belief. 

In the Gospel according Luke, the Apostle Luke indicated that messiah must suffered, died (Luke 24:44-46). Here, Luke explicitly mentioned that messiah had to suffered and died according to the Laws, prophets and Psalms. Therefore, in Luke's interpretation of Jesus’ suffering and death, Jesus had proven that He had fulfilled all the Messianic prophecies and expectation. Jesus’ suffering and resurrection as messiah or suffering servant plays essential role in understanding of Christian salvation theology. Yet, the question arises here that how Jesus actually did fulfill the role of messiah and how Jesus could actually claim that He is the Messiah. 
Many scholars argued that the idea of Jesus as being Messiah or the suffering servant of the Lord is the idea invented by the Gospel writers and the early Christians. Some biblical scholars claimed that Jesus’ suffering and death have nothing to do with or have no linkage to the servant songs in Isaiah or the Royal Psalms. They even argued that suffering messiah was typically the oxymoron of Luke. “Interpreters have usually been content to draw on the figure of Isaiah 53 or to note that pre-Christian Judaism had no concept of a suffering Christ figure; they therefore remark that Luke’s scriptural suffering Messiah is an early Christian invention or oxymoron.”
This statement basically saying that the idea of suffering messiah is not originated in Old Testament, therefore, the role of Jesus as suffering messiah could not be a fulfillment of the Laws, the prophets and the Psalms as Luke stated, and thus the idea of Jesus being a suffering messiah is merely an intervention of early Christians.  If this statement is true, it would jeopardize the Christian belief that by His suffering and death, Jesus, the Messiah, had paid the debt of sins and redeemed the whole world and accomplished the salvation plan of His Father. Because, if there were no suffering messiah and the suffering messiah and it was not part of God’s salvation plan, the whole system of Christianity would failed and what Jesus did for us would not be a valid act for atonement and our saviour, Jesus Christ, would merely a person who died on the cross during the Roman occupation in Mediterranean. For this reason, it crucial for Christian to convince other that it is God’s plan to save the people through the sufferings, death and resurrection of his son and anointed one, Jesus Christ. 

Notes: I would like to hear from you what you think of the scholars' claim of "suffering messiah" is a creation of Luke, or the early Christians. 



A brief History of Holy Cross Theological College



A brief History of Holy Cross Theological College 


            The Holy Cross Theological College ( then known as college of the Holy Cross) had a very humble beginning as a Bible school at Kyimindaing, a mission headquarters situated at the outskirt of Yangon at that time. It was the first Bible school that was opened in the Yangon Diocese in 1883 by the Rt Rev John Miller stranchen. Due to the lack of school teachers at Mission Headquarters at Kyimindaing, (Yangon) the Rt Rev R.S. Fyffe moved  the school to Mandalay, and Myittha (upper Myanmar) in 1916. Then in 1924, it was moved back again to St. Michael’s Church, Kyimindaing which was the mission centre for Delta and Pyay areas.

            The Yangon Diocesan Council decided in August 1929, that the Divinity School (as it was known then) should be made a proper institution with separate building and a full time missionary in-charge of it. This decision was materialized when the Divinity School was moved to Kokkaing situated at the eastern bank of Lake Inya where new Bible school building was built by the Rt Rev Norman Tubbs in 1931. The foundation stone of the College of the Holy Cross was laid byt the Metropolitan of the Church of the India, Burma and Ceylon, by the Most Rt Foss Westscott at the present site within the Holy Cross Church compound on 12 February 1934 with hostel facilities for ordinand training. The new College building was completed within a few months and Bible school was moved to the facilities which were called College of the Holy Cross. The new College was consecrated by the Rt Rev G.A.West on 27 February 1935. The aim of the Whole venture was to educate and train indigenous ministers to meet the new conditions in Myanmar. The College was closed during the WWII from 1942 to 1945. After the war it was reopened from 1946 to 1950. Again it was closed from 1950 to 1955 due to internal unrest. During the period it was opened as a interdenominational University students hostel. The College was reopened for ordinands in 1955 by the Rt Rev V. G. Shearburn.
    All the foreign missionaries left Myanmar in 1966 in including the Bishop of Yangon for good. Consequently, the Holy Cross Divinity College was came under the care of the new indigenous bishop, the Rt Rev F. Ah Mya. On 24 February 1970, the Yangon Diocese became the church of the Province of Myanmar, Which was formed comprising four dioceses (namely Yangon, Mandalay, Hpa-an and Sittwe) out of the former diocese of Yangon. Accordingly, it became the College under the direct care of the province called the Church of the Province of Myanmar. At the 9th . Provincial Council held at Toungoo in 1984, a 10-year plan for a higher theological education was adopted with a view to conferring degree on trainees of both sexes, ordinands and Laity. Consequently, the B.th programme was began in 1989. Starting from 1993 the college has been conferring the B. Th. Degree in consultation with the other theological institutions and members of the ATEM.
The Holy Cross Theological College is a constituent member of the ATESEA. The Board of ATESEA approved the B.Th degree of Holy Cross Theological College on 3 March 1999.
    The Holy Cross Theological College has drawn up a second 10 year Plan (2011-2020) at the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee celebration which was held on 27-28 February 2010. The college is starting to implement the improvement programme for B.Th. degree a proposed by the plan starting from 2011.

            The Principals of The College
Rev. George Appleton (1934-1942),
Rev. Garrad (1946-1947),
Rev. George L. Tidey (1948-1950),
Rev John Maung Pe (1955-1966),
Rev Canon Stephen San Hoo (1966-1976),
Rev Samuel San Si Htay (1976-1990),
Rev John Wilme (1990-1994),
Rev Samuel Htang Oak (1994-1998),
Rev. Mark Saw Maung Doe (1998-2006),
Rev. Dr. Simon Be Bin Htu (2006-2010) and
Rev. Dr. Samuel San Myat Shwe (2010-present).

Mission Statement

            The Holy Cross Theological College (HCTC) has been nurturing the leaders and ordinands for the CPM since 1935. The primary mission of the HCTC is to train ordained and mission workers and future leaders of the CPM.
To materialize the mission statement the main objectives fostered by the college are:-
(a) Discipleship –To make the true followers of Christ who serve the Lord and other people with full dedication and humbleness.
(b) Christian Education – To Impart academically and contextually sound knowledge on biblical, theological, historical, and social etc. essential for the service of God. 
(c) Mission      - To carry out the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and shepherding of the folk.
(d) Anglican Heritage – To uphold the Anglican identity and characteristics.
(e) Leadership Development – To nurture leadership ability with high spiritual and moral standard. 

There are four departments at the college.

Practical department
Historical department
Theological/ Anglican Studies
Biblical department

Motto: Obedience, Poverty, Chastity

Themes for Academic Years 

2006-2007 Academic Year - Submit to God and be at peace with Him (Job 22:21) 
2007 - 2008 Academic Year - Faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6) 
2008-2009 Academic Year - Keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord (Romans 12:11) 
2009-2010 Academic Year - Each will receive His praise from God. (1Corinthians 4:5b) 
2010-2011 Academic Year - Sing for Joy (Zechariah 2:10) 
2011-2012 Academic Year - Walking in Obedience (Mark 14:36, Deut 5:33)
2012-2013 Academic Year - Imitating Christ’s Poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9)  

Long Term

Post-grad program
Lay theological education
Continuing Th. Ed. for Alumni
Four-storied building
Networking and mutual relationship with local and communion theological institutions



Credit to: http://hctcnewsletter.weebly.com/index.html

I am back to this blog

Hi everyone! I wasn't able to update this blog for years because I was back in Yangon and the internet connection there was not that good. Now, I am at Moore College, Sydney to pursue my M.Th degree and have opportunity to update this blog again. As you have seen in my previous post, me and the other two were in USA for our MA program and again, three of us are in different places for our M.Th and Th.D. Snow Hinn Hinn Aye is now at Trinity in Singapore doing her M.Th, Myat Hsu Mon is now in Hong Kong doing her Th.D. Me in Sydney doing my M.Th. We also have a new faculty recruit, Enok (Enoka) and he is doing his M.Div in Hong Kong. When I look back to the past, I've witness God's immeasurable blessings to our College and now, with God's help, our College has launched a new program, Master of Ministry. This is our fist post graduate program that we have ever offered in history of our college and I am proud and thankful to the Lord that we are part of this God's handy work. Until next time!

Blessings!!!


This is my all time favourite photo of HCTC students!!